Inmate in a huff at jail job threat

HMP Barlinnie

An inmate afraid of losing his cushy prison job clashed with a sheriff who refused to impose another jail sentence on him.

William Winnie, who’s from Motherwell, is enjoying his work in the canteen at Glasgow’s Barlinnie jail, Hamilton Sheriff Court heard.

He was due to be sentenced for damaging cables and disrupting phone services in Forgewood.

However, the 23-year-old took exception when Sheriff Ray Small continued the case to await the outcome of another court matter.

It means that when the sentence Winnie is currently serving ends later this month his status will switch to that of a remand prisoner awaiting trial. Inmates in that category generally aren’t given a job and have little to do to pass the time.

Seeing Winnie’s reaction to the decision, Sheriff Small told him: “Don’t come to me with that attitude. You don’t get a sentence just so you can stay in jail with a nice job.

“If you get a sentence it will be when I decide and not before. Now go downstairs (to the cells) quietly.”

Winnie admitted pulling out wires at a telephone exchange in Dinmont Crescent and trying to bite a police officer last July.

Defence agent Diarmid Bruce said his client has an alcohol problem which he needs to address, adding: “When sober he comes across as a polite, decent boy, but he has behavioural problems due to alcohol.”